Lookout Mountain and Horsetooth

Fate was against us today. Our plan was to summit Lookout Mountain and Horsetooth by snowshoe. While we were up on the saddle we wanted to explore Meeker ridge a bit, then descend off trail and head back to the trailhead. But, as the saying goes, first, catch your hare.

How did things not go according to plan?

1. We got a late start this morning since I was up late last night.
2. We got our car stuck in a ditch on County Rd 113N a hundred yards from the trailhead.
3. Two hours into our trip, Laurel says, "Did I give the camera back to you?"
4. As we were retracing our steps to find the camera, Laurel says, "What happened to your other snowshoe?"

After a nice man in the neighborhood towed us out of our first crisis, we decided to park at the Sandbeach Lake TH instead and adjust our route accordingly. We lost and found the camera, and I found my missing snowshoe -- it had come right off my foot as we were hiking and I didn't even notice for 50 feet! We were spooked the rest of the day that items would start crawling out of our packs when we weren't looking.

We didn't get to summit anything today, but we got some good navigation practice and exercise (see our route). We also finally figured out that the tracks we have seen on recent hikes are indeed snowshoe hare -- we hadn't realized previously that their large hind feet land forward of their front feet as they hop, creating that characteristic pattern.